Ancient Evil Rises in Andrew Chiaramonte’s Young & Cursed, a spine tingling shocker, arriving October 2025 across global platforms

A bone-chilling mystic thriller from writer / filmmaker Andrew Chiaramonte, releasing an primordial terror when guests become puppets in a devilish conflict. Launching on October 2, 2025, on Amazon Prime, the YouTube platform, Google Play Movies & TV, iTunes Movies, Apple TV+, and Fandango streaming.

Los Angeles, CA (August 8, 2025) – steel yourselves for *Young & Cursed*, a gripping account of overcoming and archaic horror that will reimagine scare flicks this autumn. Brought to life by rising genre visionary Andrew Chiaramonte, this pressure-packed and moody motion picture follows five figures who regain consciousness sealed in a unreachable dwelling under the ominous sway of Kyra, a central character inhabited by a two-thousand-year-old scriptural evil. Brace yourself to be drawn in by a theatrical venture that unites bone-deep fear with arcane tradition, unleashing on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, Apple TV+, and Fandango at Home on the second of October, 2025.


Possession by evil has been a recurring element in screenwriting. In *Young & Cursed*, that pattern is redefined when the monsters no longer come from a different plane, but rather from deep inside. This illustrates the haunting aspect of the cast. The result is a emotionally raw inner struggle where the narrative becomes a perpetual struggle between moral forces.


In a remote backcountry, five teens find themselves caught under the malevolent dominion and control of a mysterious apparition. As the companions becomes submissive to escape her dominion, abandoned and hunted by terrors impossible to understand, they are driven to confront their deepest fears while the doomsday meter coldly moves toward their final moment.


In *Young & Cursed*, fear deepens and ties break, prompting each figure to rethink their true nature and the idea of freedom of choice itself. The threat intensify with every beat, delivering a frightening tale that weaves together unearthly horror with human fear.

Andrew Chiaramonte, Director: “With *Young & Cursed*, my creative target was to extract deep fear, an curse from prehistory, embedding itself in human fragility, and exposing a presence that tests the soul when will is shattered.”

Madison Hubler (Kyra): “Playing Kyra demanded embodying something past sanity. She is uninformed until the demon emerges, and that flip is haunting because it is so emotional.”

Watch the Horror Unfold

*Young & Cursed* will be brought for on-demand beginning this October 2, on Amazon Prime, Google’s video hub, Google Play, Apple iTunes, Apple’s streaming platform, and Fandango at Home—providing watchers everywhere can witness this horror showcase.


Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has just rolled out a new visual teaser for *Young & Cursed*, online to watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zu0n4WmPI1s, as a companion to its original clip, which has pulled in over massive response.


In addition to its regional launch, Chiaramonte Films, Inc. has broadcast that *Young & Cursed* will also be available worldwide, taking the terror to thrill-seekers globally.


Witness this soul-jarring voyage through terror. Join *Young & Cursed* this spooky debut to confront these dark realities about the psyche.


For bonus footage, production news, and news from Chiaramonte Films, follow @YoungAndCursedFilm across entertainment pages and visit the movie’s homepage.





Modern horror’s Turning Point: the 2025 season American release plan Mixes primeval-possession lore, signature indie scares, and brand-name tremors

Beginning with endurance-driven terror suffused with near-Eastern lore and including brand-name continuations paired with cutting indie sensibilities, 2025 is lining up as the most dimensioned paired with intentionally scheduled year of the last decade.

The 2025 horror calendar is not just busy, it is strategic. top-tier distributors set cornerstones through proven series, simultaneously platform operators stack the fall with new perspectives plus scriptural shivers. In parallel, the artisan tier is catching the afterglow of a banner 2024 fest year. As Halloween remains the genre’s crown jewel, the year beyond October is carefully apportioned. The autumn corridor is the classic sprint, distinctly in 2025, players are marking January, spring, and mid-summer. The audience is primed, studios are calculated, therefore 2025 could stand as the most orchestrated year.

What Studios and Mini-Majors Are Doing: Premium genre swings back

The studios are not sitting idle. If 2024 laid the groundwork for a horror reinvention, 2025 deepens the push.

Universal’s slate leads off the quarter with a big gambit: a reconceived Wolf Man, situated not in a foggy nineteenth century European hamlet, in a clear present-tense world. From director Leigh Whannell with Christopher Abbott alongside Julia Garner, this cut welds lycanthropy to home turmoil. The change is not purely bodily, it is marital, parental, and achingly human. Slated for mid January, it fits the new plan to claim winter’s soft window with prestige horror rather than castoffs.

Spring sees the arrival of Clown in a Cornfield, a YA slasher conversion presented as stripped terror. Led by Eli Craig anchored by Katie Douglas and Kevin Durand, it feels like crimson splashed Midwest menace with winked critique. Beneath the facade, it probes hometown suspicion, boomer to zoomer divides, and mob retribution. Festival whispers say it is sharp.

When summer fades, Warner’s slate rolls out the capstone inside its trusty horror universe: The Conjuring: Last Rites. With Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson back as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the installment aims for closure as it frames a famed case. Although the framework is familiar, director Michael Chaves is said to bring a more mournful, introspective tone to the series swan song. It arrives early September, buying space before the October wave.

After that, The Black Phone 2. Once set for early summer, the October pivot signals belief. Derrickson re engages, and so do the signature elements that made the first installment a sleeper hit: retro dread, trauma as text, paired with unsettling supernatural order. The stakes escalate here, by enlarging the “grabber” map and grief’s lineage.

Capping the big ticket run is Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, a property whose brand does the lifting. The continuation widens the legend, enlarges the animatronic menagerie, bridging teens and legacy players. It posts in December, securing the winter cap.

Platform Originals: Tight funds, wide impact

With theaters prioritizing brand safety, SVOD players are testing edges, and gains show.

One of the year’s most ambitious streaming titles is Weapons, a cold file multi story chiller splicing three ages joined by a mass disappearance. From Zach Cregger and featuring Josh Brolin and Julia Garner, the piece merges terror with dramatic mass. Debuting in theaters late summer then streaming in fall, it looks primed to seed post watch analysis akin to Barbarian.

More contained by design is Together, a body horror chamber piece pairing Alison Brie with Dave Franco. Confined to a lonely rental when a vacation turns, the narrative traces love and jealousy and self contempt into body collapse. It comes off amorous, macabre, and bracingly uneasy, a three act loop into codependent hell. Despite no official platform date, it is destined for a fall landing.

One more platform talker is Sinners, a 1930s vintage vampire folk yarn led by Michael B. Jordan. Imaged in sepia bloom and biblical metaphor, it plays like There Will Be Blood meets Let the Right One In. The title explores American religious trauma through supernatural symbol. Early test screens tag it as a top talked streaming debut.

Further platform indies wait for their cue: Bring Her Back, Bone Lake, and Keeper all work grief and disappearance and identity, choosing meaning over noise.

Possession Beneath the Skin: Young & Cursed

Rolling out October 2 across streaming, Young & Cursed arrives as a rare marriage, contained in staging yet mythic in effect. Scripted and led by Andrew Chiaramonte, the narrative rides with five strangers waking in a secluded woodland cabin, held by Kyra, a young woman possessed by the ancient biblical demon Lilith. With nightfall, Kyra’s power deepens, an invasive force mining their most secret fears, frailties, and regrets.

The unease is psychological, fused to primal myth. Resisting the exorcism template of Catholic ceremony and Latin chant, this one digs into something older, something darker. Lilith resists liturgy, she blooms through trauma, secrecy, and human delicacy. Making possession internal threads Young & Cursed into the current of intimate character studies in genre skin.

Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, Google Play, and Fandango at Home set the film as Halloween counterprogramming versus sequel waves and monster returns. It is an astute call. No bloated mythology. No IP hangover. Just pure psychological dread, contained, tense, and tailor made for the binge and breathe rhythm of digital horror fans. Amid spectacle, Young & Cursed can distinguish itself by whispering, then howling.

From Festivals to Market

Fantastic Fest, SXSW, Tribeca, and TIFF continue to incubate the next six to twelve months of horror. They are more runway than museum.

Fantastic Fest this cycle touts a strong horror menu. Primate opens with tropical body horror, sparking Cronenberg plus Herzog comps. Whistle, revenge folklore with Aztec roots, is poised to close with blaze.

Those midnight titles, including If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, buzz from delivery as much as naming. A24’s satire of toxic fandom inside a con lockdown aims at breakout.

SXSW gave air to Clown in a Cornfield and to microbudget hauntings courting buyers. Sundance tends to present grief infused elevated horror and likely will, with Tribeca’s genre lane skewing urban, social, and surreal.

Strategy at festivals now equals branding as well as discovery. A Fantastic Fest or TIFF badge is phase one marketing, not a coda.

Legacy IP: Reups, Reboots, and Rethinks

Legacy IP arrives sturdier and more intentional this cycle.

Fear Street: Prom Queen, due in July, revives the ’90s horror franchise with a new lead and a throwback tone. Departing prior tones, it leans camp and prom night melodrama. Expect tiaras, corn syrup blood, and VHS panic.

M3GAN 2.0 hits late June, seeking to build out techno horror lore using new characters and AI born frights. The opening film’s buzz and platform staying power help Universal go bigger.

The Long Walk arrives off an early Stephen King survival piece, guided by Francis Lawrence, it lands as a ruthless dystopian allegory couched in survival horror, a march where no one wins. Marketed correctly, it could be The Hunger Games for horror adults.

Also present, reboots and sequels including Hell House LLC: Lineage, V/H/S/Halloween, The Toxic Avenger, and Anaconda, spread through the year, most watching for smart slots or quick buys.

Trends to Watch

Mythic currents go mainstream
Lilith in Young & Cursed plus Aztec curses in Whistle highlight ancient texts and symbols. Rather than nostalgia, it reclaims pre Christian archetypes. Horror is not just scaring us, it is reminding us that evil is older than we are.

Body horror ascends again
Projects including Together, Weapons, and Keeper re center the flesh. Mutation, infection, transformation function as metaphors for heartbreak, grief, and regret.

Streaming Originals Grow Teeth
The days of disposable horror filler on digital platforms are over. Streamers back real writing, real filmmakers, and genuine marketing. Titles such as Weapons and Sinners are treated as events, not mere content.

Festival glow translates to leverage
Festival laurels are no longer ornamental, they are leverage for theatrical release, premium placement, and media cycles. Skip festival strategy in 2025 and the film risks invisibility.

Theatrical release is a trust fall
The big screen goes to those expected to beat comps or build series. The rest moves to PVOD or hybrid patterns. Horror remains on big screens, selectively curated.

Forward View: Autumn density and winter pivot

Young & Cursed plus The Conjuring: Last Rites plus The Black Phone 2 plus Weapons, all in September and October, makes for a saturated fall. Indies like Bone Lake and Keeper must claw for air. Keep an eye on possible slips into early 2026 or platform flips.

December is anchored by Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, but do not rule out a surprise streamer drop in the final weeks. Since big films lean mythic, a final monster or exorcism play can claim space.

The 2025 performance is about reach across segments, not one hero title. The brief is not the next Get Out, it is horror with afterlife beyond receipts.



The next spook lineup: returning titles, original films, together with A brimming Calendar optimized for frights

Dek: The arriving genre slate loads right away with a January glut, subsequently stretches through midyear, and well into the holidays, marrying name recognition, original angles, and shrewd alternatives. Distributors with platforms are embracing cost discipline, theatrical exclusivity first, and social-fueled campaigns that transform genre titles into national conversation.

Horror’s position as 2026 begins

Horror filmmaking has proven to be the surest play in annual schedules, a space that can lift when it clicks and still insulate the losses when it fails to connect. After the 2023 year signaled to executives that modestly budgeted scare machines can command the national conversation, the following year continued the surge with high-profile filmmaker pieces and quiet over-performers. The carry pushed into the 2025 frame, where reawakened brands and festival-grade titles proved there is space for a variety of tones, from sequel tracks to standalone ideas that play globally. The combined impact for 2026 is a schedule that seems notably aligned across the market, with purposeful groupings, a equilibrium of familiar brands and untested plays, and a renewed focus on release windows that drive downstream revenue on premium digital rental and digital services.

Executives say the space now functions as a swing piece on the slate. Horror can open on virtually any date, deliver a clear pitch for spots and reels, and overperform with crowds that arrive on Thursday nights and keep coming through the sophomore frame if the offering hits. After a production delay era, the 2026 pattern demonstrates faith in that model. The slate starts with a loaded January schedule, then taps spring and early summer for genre counterpoints, while making space for a fall run that pushes into the Halloween frame and into the next week. The calendar also features the stronger partnership of arthouse labels and home platforms that can launch in limited release, create conversation, and roll out at the right moment.

A further high-level trend is series management across brand ecosystems and heritage properties. The companies are not just producing another chapter. They are looking to package threaded continuity with a heightened moment, whether that is a title presentation that conveys a reframed mood or a star attachment that anchors a new installment to a original cycle. At the very same time, the filmmakers behind the most anticipated originals are returning to material texture, physical gags and distinct locales. That convergence delivers the 2026 slate a lively combination of comfort and shock, which is the formula for international play.

Inside the studio playbooks

Paramount sets the tone early with two centerpiece projects that bracket the tone map. First comes Scream 7 on February 27, 2026, with Kevin Williamson in the top job and Neve Campbell back at the core, marketing it as both a lineage transfer and a back-to-basics character-centered film. Filming is underway in Atlanta, and the directional approach announces a throwback-friendly angle without retreading the last two entries’ sibling arc. A campaign is expected built on classic imagery, early character teases, and a two-beat trailer plan arriving in late fall. Distribution is theatrical through Paramount.

Paramount also brings back a once-mighty spoof franchise with Scary Movie 6 on June 12, 2026, directed by Michael Tiddes. Anna Faris and Regina Hall are set to reunite, with the Wayans brothers involved on the creative side for the first time since the early 2000s, a linchpin the campaign will foreground. As a off-tentpole summer play, this one will build large awareness through viral-minded bites, with the horror spoof format permitting quick redirects to whatever defines genre chatter that spring.

Universal has three separate bets. SOULM8TE debuts January 9, 2026, a AI-tinged spinoff from the M3GAN universe from Atomic Monster and Blumhouse. The setup is clean, grief-rooted, and logline-clear: a grieving man installs an artificial companion that becomes a harmful mate. The date locates it at the front of a competition-heavy month, with marketing at Universal likely to mirror creepy live activations and brief clips that fuses companionship and creep.

On May 8, 2026, the studio positions an untitled Rob Savage horror film, widely believed to be the feature developed under working names in the family-in-peril vein, with Jessica Chastain top-lining. The public release grid currently lists it as an untitled Savage project, which allows a name unveil to become an marketing beat closer to the opening teaser. The timing offers Universal a foothold in early May while larger tentpoles own different weekends.

Completing the studio’s year, Jordan Peele’s untitled event film claims October 23, 2026, a slot he has commanded before. Peele projects are marketed as signature events, with a teaser with minimal detail and a subsequent trailers that establish tone without plot reveals the concept. The holiday-adjacent corridor creates space for Universal to saturate pre-holiday auditoriums with PLF and IMAX bookings where available, then use the copyright window to capture late-October interest at home.

Warner Bros., via New Line, works with Sony internationally for Evil Dead Burn, dated July 24, 2026. Sébastien Vaniček commands, with Souheila Yacoub fronting. The franchise has established that a flesh-and-blood, makeup-driven approach can feel cinematic on a controlled budget. Position this as a splatter summer horror rush that pushes international markets, with Warner Bros. handling U.S. and Sony taking most overseas territories.

Sony’s horror bench is impressively deep. The studio launches two recognizable-IP pushes in the back half. An untitled Insidious film opens August 21, 2026, preserving a consistent supernatural brand alive while the spin-off branch evolves. The studio has adjusted timing on this title before, but the current plan aims it in late summer, where the brand has long performed.

Then, on September 18, 2026, Resident Evil returns in what Sony is positioning as a clean-slate approach for its game-to-film powerhouse. With the PlayStation Productions pipeline now a pillar part of the studio’s strategy, this new take has a clearer mandate to serve both fans and curious audiences. The fall slot gives Sony time to build campaign creative around universe detail, and creature builds, elements that can increase premium screens and community activity.

Focus Features, working with Working Title, books a prestige bet on Christmas Day with Robert Eggers’ Werwulf on December 25, 2026. Set in 13th-century England, the film sustains Eggers’ run of period horror rooted in rigorous craft and dialect, this time set against lycan legends. Focus Features has already staked the slot for a holiday release, a clear message in Eggers as a specialty play that can broaden if early reception is warm.

Where the platforms fit in

Platform tactics for 2026 run on tested paths. Universal’s releases transition to copyright after a cinema-first plus PVOD, a ladder that elevates both FOMO and platform bumps in the late-window. Prime Video pairs catalogue additions with international acquisitions and small theatrical windows when the data supports it. Max and Hulu work their edges in library pulls, using in-app campaigns, genre hubs, and editorial rows to extend momentum on the year’s genre earnings. Netflix keeps flexible about in-house releases and festival pickups, dating horror entries near launch and eventizing drops with fast-turn plans. Shudder, integrated with RLJE and Cineverse’s theatrical footprint, uses a hybrid of tailored theatrical exposure and rapid platforming that converts WOM to subscribers. That will be meaningful for Return to Silent Hill, which Cineverse is releasing in theaters January 23, 2026, before working genre-fan funnels in the months that follow.

Apple TV+ keeps selective horror on a situational basis. The platform has shown appetite to invest in select projects with top-tier auteurs or name-led packages, then give them a art-house footprint in partnership with exhibitors to meet guild rules or to earn receipts before the streaming drop. Hulu and Disney’s domestic pipeline still leverages the 20th Century Studios slate, a important element for ongoing engagement when the genre conversation swells.

Indie corridors

Cineverse is curating a 2026 corridor with two name-brand moves. Return to Silent Hill lands in January with Christophe Gans returning to his adaptation of Konami’s classic title. The appeal is clear: the same gloomy, fog-choked atmosphere that made the original a cult hit, recalibrated for modern soundscapes and visuals. Later in the year, Wolf Creek: Legacy is expected in a autumn frame, with Greg McLean back steering his outback slasher universe. The distributor has indicated a big-screen first plan for the title, an promising marker for fans of the gritty series and for exhibitors seeking adult skew in the autumn stretch.

Focus will work the auteur lane with Werwulf, shepherding the title through the fall circuit if the cut is ready, then activating the year-end corridor to go wider. That positioning has delivered for prestige horror with award possibilities. A24, NEON, IFC Films, RLJE, and Magnet have not released many dates in public calendars yet, but their festival pipelines commonly finalize after Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes. A credible outlook is a brace of late-summer and fall platformers that can widen if reception supports. Watch for an A24 acquisition out of Sundance midnight slots and a NEON title that plays Cannes before a September or October domestic bow. RLJE and Shudder often work as partners, using boutique theatrical to kindle evangelism that fuels their subscriber base.

Series vs standalone

By number, the 2026 slate leans toward the brand-heavy side. Scream 7, Insidious, Resident Evil, Evil Dead Burn, and Return to Silent Hill all harness marquee value. The risk, as ever, is diminishing returns. The standing approach is to package each entry as a renewed feel. Paramount is foregrounding character and continuity in Scream 7, Sony is suggesting a ground-zero restart for Resident Evil, and New Line’s Evil Dead Burn is leaning into a French-accented approach from a new voice. Those choices have impact when the audience has so many options and social sentiment tilts quickly.

Non-franchise titles and filmmaker-centric entries supply the oxygen. Jordan Peele’s October film will be pitched as a brand unto itself. Send Help, dated January 30, 2026 at 20th Century Studios, puts Rachel McAdams in a survival chiller premise with the filmmaker’s mischievous menace. SOULM8TE offers a clear, chilling tech hook. Werwulf brings period specificity and an hard-edged tone. Even when the title is not based on a brand, the assembly is grounded enough to convert curiosity into pre-sales and first-night audiences.

Past-three-year patterns illuminate the playbook. In 2023, a exclusive theatrical model that kept streaming intact did not prevent a same-day experiment from performing when the brand was powerful. In 2024, craft-forward auteur horror punched above its weight in premium auditoriums. In 2025, a resuscitation of a beloved infection saga demonstrated that global horror franchises can still feel new when they reorient and grow scope. That last point is directly relevant to Sony’s 28 Years Later plan, which proceeds January 16, 2026 with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, this time directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Alex Garland. The twin-shoot approach, with chapters shot in tandem, lets marketing to bridge entries through character arcs and themes and to keep assets alive without doldrums.

Production craft signals

The craft conversations behind this slate forecast a continued turn toward physical, site-specific craft. Lee Cronin has said his The Mummy will not mirror any recent iteration of the property, a stance that fits with the in-camera lean he brought to Evil Dead Rise. The film completed filming and is moving toward its April 17, 2026 date. Marketing will likely that emphasizes atmosphere and fear rather than whiz-bang spectacle, with the New Line and Blumhouse partnership backing budget rigor.

Robert Eggers, meanwhile, has outlined Werwulf as the hardest-edged project he has tackled, which tracks with a historical setting and authentic period speech, a combination that can make for textured sound and a austere, elemental atmosphere on the big screen. Focus will likely tease this aesthetic in long-lead features and guild coverage before rolling out a teaser that withholds plot, a move that has clicked for the filmmaker’s past releases.

On the franchise side, Evil Dead Burn is designed for gross-out texture, a signature of the series that sells overseas in red-band trailers and generates shareable shock clips from early screenings. Scream 7 targets a meta reframe that centers its original star. Resident Evil will thrive or struggle on monster aesthetics and world-building, which match well with con floor moments and planned releases. Insidious tends to be a soundstage showcase, with Dolby and Atmos spots that make the theater case feel necessary. Look for trailers that underscore fine-grain sound, deep-bass stingers, and held silences that play in premium auditoriums.

How the year maps out

January is busy. Universal’s SOULM8TE opens January 9, 2026, then Sony returns a week later with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple on January 16. Cineverse’s Return to Silent Hill follows on January 23, a foggy reset amid marquee brands. The month concludes with Send Help on January 30 via 20th Century Studios, a survival-horror from Sam Raimi that puts a star forward in Rachel McAdams. The competition here is thick, but the palette of tones affords lanes to each, and the five-week structure supports a clean run for each if word of mouth endures.

Late Q1 and spring load in summer. Paramount’s Scream 7 arrives February 27 with brand warmth. In April, New Line’s The Mummy revives a classic monster on April 17, a spring frame that once was aligned with genre counterprogramming and now accommodates big openers. Universal’s untitled Rob Savage film on May 8 connects into summer while maintaining horror’s hold on early May weekends that are not claimed by superheroes or family tentpoles.

Summer sharpens the contrast. Scary Movie 6 on June 12 is playful and broad, then Evil Dead Burn on July 24 delivers brutal intensity. The counterprogramming logic is coherent. The spoof can deliver next to family tentpoles and animated films, while the mid-summer gorefest rewards older teenagers and genre diehards once the big Friday sequels have cycled through premium screens.

Shoulder season into fall leans recognizable. The Insidious entry on August 21 gives the studio a spiritual-horror anchor where the brand has previously excelled. Resident Evil lands after September 18, a shoulder season window that still feeds into Halloween marketing beats. Jordan Peele’s untitled film books October 23 and will seize cultural oxygen heading into Halloween weekend, likely supported by a slow-reveal plan and limited plot reveals that stress concept over spoilers.

Prestige at year’s end. Werwulf on December 25 is a position that genre can live at Christmas when packaged as auteur prestige horror. The distributor has done this before, deliberate rollout, then turning to critics’ lists and awards-season craft coverage to ride the cycle into January. If the film pleases critics, the studio can go wider in the first week of 2027 while turning holiday audiences and gift card usage.

Embedded title notes

Scream 7 (Paramount, February 27, 2026)
Director: Kevin Williamson. Top cast: Neve Campbell, with casting still being revealed as production rolls. Logline: Sidney returns to challenge a new Ghostface while the narrative revisits the original film’s DNA. Rating: TBA. Production: Filming in Atlanta. Positioning: roots-first with a today edge.

SOULM8TE (Universal, January 9, 2026)
Producers: Atomic Monster, Blumhouse. Logline: A devastated man’s algorithmic partner grows into something dangerously intimate. Rating: TBA. Production: Production locked for imp source an early-year bow. Positioning: techno-horror with feeling.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony, January 16, 2026)
Director: Nia DaCosta. Writer: Alex Garland. Top cast: Cillian Murphy, Jack O’Connell, and additional ensemble tied to a new antagonist faction. Logline: The second chapter in a trilogy grows the world beyond the immediate outbreak as a cult surges in the ruins. Rating: TBA. Production: Filmed in tandem with the first film. Positioning: elevated outbreak saga chapter.

Return to Silent Hill (Cineverse, January 23, 2026)
Director: Christophe Gans. Top cast: TBA in updated campaign materials. Logline: A man goes back to a fog-shrouded town in search of a lost love, only to collide with a mutable reality and the town’s horrors. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed production with U.S. distribution. Positioning: atmospheric game adaptation.

Send Help (20th Century Studios, January 30, 2026)
Director: Sam Raimi. Top cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Pang. Logline: After a plane crash, an employee and her demanding boss scramble to survive on a isolated island as the pecking order reverses and unease intensifies. Rating: TBA. Production: Completed. Positioning: star-front survival film from a master.

The Mummy (New Line, April 17, 2026)
Director: Lee Cronin. Producers: Blumhouse, Atomic Monster, Doppelgängers. Top cast: roles under wraps in official materials. Logline: A renewed take that returns the monster to nightmare, rooted in Cronin’s practical effects and rising dread. Rating: TBA. Production: Shoot done. Positioning: monster revival with signature voice.


Untitled Rob Savage Horror Film (Universal, May 8, 2026)
Director: Rob Savage. Top cast: Jessica Chastain. Logline: {A home-set haunting tale that routes the horror through a minor’s volatile inner lens. Rating: pending. Production: completed. Positioning: studio-backed, star-driven paranormal suspense.

Scary Movie 6 (Paramount, June 12, 2026)
Director: Michael Tiddes. Top cast: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, with the Wayans brothers back in creative roles. Logline: {A comic send-up that skewers contemporary horror memes and true crime fascinations. Rating: to be announced. Production: fall 2025 production window. Positioning: four-quadrant summer counterplay.

Evil Dead Burn (Warner Bros. domestic, July 24, 2026)
Director: Sébastien Vaniček. Top cast: Souheila Yacoub, with ensemble additions. Logline: A new infestation of Deadites breaks out, with an overseas twist in tone and setting. Rating: to be announced. Production: lensing in New Zealand. Positioning: graphic series entry optimized for PLF.

Untitled Insidious Film (Sony, August 21, 2026)
Director: TBA in marketing materials. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: The Further yawns again, with a fresh family lashed to ancient dread. Rating: pending. Production: on track for summer lensing before late-summer rollout. Positioning: trusted supernatural label in a supportive window.

Resident Evil (Sony, September 18, 2026)
Director: unrevealed publicly. Top cast: unrevealed. Logline: A fresh restart designed to reconstruct the franchise from the ground up, with an priority on true survival horror over action-heavy spectacle. Rating: awaiting classification. Production: on a development track with locked window. Positioning: lore-true modernization with broad upside.

Jordan Peele Untitled Event Film (Universal, October 23, 2026)
Director: Jordan Peele. Top cast: awaiting confirmation. Logline: deliberately concealed. Rating: forthcoming. Production: continuing. Positioning: director-fronted event with teaser rhythm.

Werwulf (Focus Features, December 25, 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers. Top cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with other regulars expected. Logline: A medieval werewolf story built on antique diction and primal menace. Rating: forthcoming. Production: preproduction aligned to holiday frame. Positioning: high-craft holiday horror with awards-season tail.

Wolf Creek: Legacy (Cineverse, TBA 2026)
Director: Greg McLean. Top cast: John Jarratt expected to return as Mick Taylor. Logline: The Australian outback slasher returns, with a theatrical-first route ahead of platforming. Status: timing TBD, fall window eyed.

Why 2026 and why now

Three workable forces drive this lineup. First, production that slowed or re-sequenced in 2024 required schedule breathing room. Horror can move in swiftly because scripts often call for fewer locales, fewer large-scale digital sequences, and leaner schedules. Second, studios have become more orderly about windows. Theatrical exclusivity remains the goal for most of these films, followed by PVOD and then platform streaming, a sequence that has consistently exceeded straight-to-streaming landings. Third, social chatter converts. The marketing teams behind navigate to this website these titles will activate social-ready stingers from test screenings, orchestrated scare clips paired with Thursday night previews, and experiential pop-ups that seed creator reels. It is a repeatable playbook because it performs.

A fourth element is the programming calculus. Early 2026 is less crowded with family and superhero corridors, offering breathing room for genre entries that can lead a weekend or operate as the older-skew option. January is the prime example. Four different flavors of horror will share space across five weekends, which reduces inter-title cannibalization. Summer provides the other window. The lampoon benefits from family and action buoyancy, then the hard-R entry can use a late-July lull before back-to-school.

Financials, ratings, and sleeper angles

Budgets remain in the ideal band. Most of the films above will sit beneath the $40–$50 million band, with many far below. That allows for deep PLF penetration without needing superhero-level volume to break even. The most likely R ratings include Evil Dead Burn, Werwulf, and possibly Resident Evil depending on the final cut. Scream 7, Insidious, and SOULM8TE can plausibly land PG-13 to maximize reach, though each franchise has toggled between ratings in the past. Specialty plays tend to lean R to preserve tone and intensity.

The sleeper chase continues in Q1, where lean-budget genre can own weekends with minimal competition, and again in late summer, where horror often becomes the conversation when tentpoles tire. The 2026 slate is set up to capitalize on those pockets. January could easily deliver the first surprise over-performer of the year, and August into September gives Sony an avenue to hold screens with back-to-back supernatural IP while still leaving room for an indie breakout.

Internationally, brand recognition helps Resident Evil, Evil Dead, and Scream travel, while 28 Years Later benefits from a British setting and returning talent. Werwulf and The Mummy will lean on auteur and classic-monster awareness abroad. Streamers will amplify the tail, with copyright pickups boosting Universal’s slate and Shudder driving evangelism for Cineverse titles. Forecast a healthy PVOD window broadly, since horror fans have shown a willingness to pay for convenience after an opening weekend, especially when word of mouth is strong.

What the calendar feels like for audiences

From a moviegoer’s perspective, the 2026 horror year offers pace and range. January is a smorgasbord, February delivers a legacy slasher, April reintroduces a Universal monster, May and June provide a ghostly double-hit for date nights and group outings, July gets blood-slick, August and September keep the supernatural momentum, October turns into a Jordan Peele event, and December invites a bleak, literate nightmare. That is how you keep chatter alive and occupancy strong without cannibalizing your own titles. The pattern also supports social campaigns that can scale over time, using earlier releases to stage the audience for bigger plays in the fall.

Exhibitors welcome the spacing. Horror delivers consistent Thursday swells, efficient placements, and strong PLF uptake when the creative supports it. The 2026 slate has at least three titles that can justify premium screens, with The Mummy, Evil Dead Burn, and Werwulf all showcasing grain, audio design, and visuals that benefit from larger formats. The calendar also leaves room for specialty platformers to open in New York and this contact form Los Angeles, build reviews, and slide into national conversation as the fall progresses.

A Robust 2026 On Deck

Calendars slide. Ratings change. Casts update. But the spine of 2026 horror is intact. There is brand heft where it matters, new vision where it lands, and a calendar that shows studios understand how and when audiences want to be scared. The awards and festival pipeline into 2027 will come into focus once the fall festivals lock, and it would not be surprising to see at least one late-breaking specialty acquisition join the party. For now, the job is simple, deliver taut trailers, keep the curtain closed, and let the fear sell the seats.